Sour Cream and Onion Spoon Bread

This is the first gluten free item I ever made. I had switched over about a week previously and seriously had about reached my limit. I had eaten potatoes and rice over and over, but I was craving some kind of bread product. At that point I had not realized that pancakes would save my sanity. I needed something and I needed it baaaaad! Luckily, I had been to the library and found 1,000 Gluten Free Recipes by Carol Fenster. If you have to go gluten free, it’s the first cookbook I recommend you look at. I ended up getting my own copy for my ipad. Now I can happily read recipes while waiting. (Waiting is one of the top three things parents of teenagers do… but that’s another post entirely).

So for the July Corn and Butter Improv Challenge, I give you Sour Cream and Onion Spoon Bread. As it bakes, your house will smell like Sour Cream and Onion potato chips. When it comes out of the oven, it will taste like a quiche. Straight from the fridge, it has enough bread like properties to make a great savory sandwich. I especially like putting ham and more cheese in the middle. And by no means is this dish limited to the gluten free! I have just learned that if I tell my sons it’s gf, they will leave it alone. My daughter, on the other hand, expects a bite of everything I bake, so I still have to share….just not as much.

I did not really change the recipe…Okay, Okay, I did change a few things, but not enough to warrant printing a recipe that belongs to someone else. I used orange cheddar instead of white cheddar. I didn’t sprinkle paprika on top. I used skim milk instead of 1% because I am a skim milk kind of gal. I used real butter instead of a “buttery spread.” You can see the changes were mild. The ingredients are cornmeal, baking powder, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, cheddar cheese, milk, sour cream, butter and eggs. As with any spoon bread, you mix the dry ingredients, whisk them into warm milk, add the rest of the wet ingredients and then bake.

I did an internet search for the recipe (it’s actually called Sour Cream White Cheddar Spoon Bread) and found Carol’s entire book on google books and scribd. That got me a little mad…not because I bought the book and could have had free access, but because it belongs to Carol Fenster and she deserves to get money for her huge work (the book is three inches thick!).

Please forgive my little soapbox shout. Let’s see what everyone else came up with this month!!